DUBLIN (Reuters) - More than 100 nations formally agreed on Friday to ban the use of cluster bombs but debate continued on loopholes that could benefit powers such as the United States, which has refused to take part in talks on a ban.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged states to quickly sign and ratify the draft treaty, which was declared adopted on Friday after no delegation objected to the text formulated after almost two weeks of talks in the Irish capital.

“The United Nations will provide its full support and is ready to assist in the implementation of the responsibilities under this convention,” Ban’s spokeswoman said in a statement.

Read more at the NY Times…

What’s in a name…?

Ban Ki-moon ‘delighted’ at adoption of new cluster bomb convention. Read more at the UN News Centre…

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The era of U.S. hegemony is coming to an end and other powers are rising. In this issue of Foreign Affairs, Fareed Zakaria contrasts America’s dwindling power with the decline of the British Empire while CFR President Richard Haass examines the consequences of a nonpolar world. The United States can continue to lead, they argue, but only if the “rise of the rest” is managed properly.

FAREED ZAKARIA is Editor of Newsweek International. This essay is adapted from his book The Post-American World (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., © 2008 by Fareed Zakaria).

Read the article at Foreign Affairs…

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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was first used in the United Kingdom to measure their war-time production. Since the whole economy was geared up to wage war, it was a fair measure of how much the system was turning over.

While the second world war has finished, GDP is peculiarly still the measurement system of choice for economic performance, measuring crime, environmental destruction and catastrophes at the same value as activity that leads to genuine growth. Furthermore, countries of the world are “ranked” as “developed” or “developing” based on GDP - an additional system built on top of an inappropriate one.

But as they say, money can’t buy happiness, at least once you’re over the poverty line. Happiness is a much harder equation than GDP, and something that global systems don’t spend a lot of time concerning themselves with fulfilling today.

Read more at Worldchanging…

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